Refrigerant receptacle



March 20, 1934. R A, BENNETT REFRIGERANT RECEPTACLE Filed Aug. 5,'1930 "J nu.

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Patented Mar, 20, 1934` PATENT s OFFICE REFRIGERANT RECEPTACLE Raymond A. Bennett. cambridge, Mass., assignor f to The Boothby Fibre Can Company, Boston,

Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application August 5, 1930, Serial No. 473,190

3 Claims. (Cl. 62-91.5)

This linvention relates to improvements in refrigerant receptacles. Moreparticularly it relates to a portable package type of miniature refrigerator wherein a suitable dry refrigerant, as frozen carbon dioxide, maintains a cold storage chamber for perishable food stuffs. Such devices have a particular utility in connection with the retail distribution of ice cream and other' frozen desserts. For example, there is a commercial demand for such a receptacle, in which a pint or quart of ice cream may be carried home by a. person neatly in a paper can, or taken conveniently on a picnic, and be found firm and fresh although packed some hours prior to the time of expected consumption. The invention provides improvements which make possible a more nearly perfect maintenance of uniform low temperature over all parts `of the surface of the stored food container. It provides for a simpliiied manipulation by the person packing the contents; and makes a more eective refrigeration, in that, as compared with devices of the general type heretofore available, it protects the contents from injury by intense cold.

Refrigerant receptacles of the general type to which the invention relates may be of any suitable material, size and shape; and they may be of permanent construction adapted for repeated use, or may be made of paper board stock, or the like inexpensive material, for single service.

Therefore while the present ,disclosure more particularly describes and illustrates a species of the invention as applied in paper board receptacles, it must be remembered that the invention is not limited to this type of receptacle, but extends to the various other types and forms to which the features of the invention are apv plicable.

Heretofore the necessity for insulation has been i recognized; and when using an ordinary paper can for the receptacle, within which would be put the gassing refrigerant and the paper can closes the outside receptacle. But even though corrugated paper board has been used for the insulating material, this type of refrigerantpackage has not proved entirely satisfactory. Even when perfectly packed according to the standards of such a system, the bottom portion of the contents of the food container may become solidly frozen. Ice cream and other foods are unsuitable for serving while a part is in this hard-rock state, and must either be wasted or be allowed to stand for a period after removal, until some of the hardness is lost, and meanwhile, contentsl which have been elsewhere in the container may become too soft. Moreover, in the preparing of such a packageunder conditions of retail distribution sales persons sometimes iind it too irk` some to insert and adjust the cylinder and each disk, in which case conditions are worse.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerant package wherein the above evils cannot arise, and wherein advantages are present that were not previously known, so far as I am aware.

In general the invention provides 'simplified structure, embodying a diminished number of initially detached parts. Said parts are of such relation as to assure a proper setting up of the package in every instance, without possibility that an intelligent person can omit any one of them. In the completed package, the food container has approximately equal treatment by the re' frigerant gas on all sides. The insulating disk heretofore separating the food container from the solid body of refrigerant may be omitted, and yet that concentration of outflow of heat, with resultant solid freezing heretofore observed in the portion of the container which is nearest to the solid refrigerant, does not occur. This is believed to be because the contiguity is eliminated between container, disk and cake; and a mobile body of gas introduced between ice cake and container. 'I'he improved effect is found notwithstanding that this introduced gas is the cold refrigerant gas. The can of the invention does not need insulating devices, for ordinary uses; but if a superior retention of cold is desired, the insulating material is preferably pre-arranged in a combination where it requires no attention by the sales person making up the package, and cannot be omitted by negligence. y

It is one feature that a partition is arranged so as to prevent the said contiguity. But this partition may be a mere marginal ledge, with large open centre, or may be a perforated piece of paper board. It may rest on either the sides or the end of the main receptacle, and it may embody in itself means for both centering the container and directing the circulation of cooling gas.

It is, moreover, an important feature that devices embodying the invention may be produced in accordance with the present practices of making a cylindrical type of paper can, and by the same machines, only simple and inexpensive departures, or additional steps. being necessary.

- These objects and results may be obtained, in a preferred form of the invention, by employing a tube of paper board stock, similar to what is used in the manufacture of paper cans, open at both ends. A closure is provided for each end of the tube; and these may be the usual flanged paper can covers. The interior of the tube is divided near one end, by a perforate, fixed, transverse partition, which makes an upper compartment for the cold-storage and a lower compartment for containing a supply of dry refrigerant material, usually in the form of a cake or wafer. The partition is located a sufcient distance above the bottom closure to avoid direct contact with the refrigerant cake, and toprovide space for circulation in which cold gases emanating from the top of the refrigerant may move easily toward the walls, and gases from other parts of the receptacle may move inward. The upper compartment is adapted to hold the closed container of ice cream or whatever is to be cooled. Such a container, of size substantially less than the tube, may rest on the said perforate partition. Its contents are then maintained cold by the circulating cold gases from the compartment below.

Gases may escape through a small vent provided.

in the top closure.

In another form an ordinary paper can with permanently closed bottom has a removable paper table or the like serving to` support the inner container spaced away from the refrigerant, while perforations in it, or a central hole, or space around it, permit circulation.

Or, the inner container may be suspended by a suitable strap from the top of the package, at such a level as corresponds to the above.

Other'features of the invention are set forth or will appear hereinafter.

It is intended that the patent shall cover by suitable expression in the appended claims, whatever features of patentable novelty exist in the invention disclosed.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is an elevation, in medial section, of a refrigerant package embodying features of the invention and including a fixed interior partition;

Figure 2 is a similar view of a modified form wherein the interior partition is removable;

Figure 3 is an elevation of the lower portion of a refrigerant package, in medial section, showing a corrugated annular, fixed support for an inner container;

Figure 4 is an elevation, partly in medial section, of a refrigerant package having insulation built into its walls, and having means for centering the inner container; and

Figure 5 is an elevation in medial section, showing a device in which the refrigerant chamlber is adjustable as to its extent in axial direcion.

Referring to the drawing, and especially to Figure 1, a tubular receptacle l0 has an upper chamber wherein may be placed a closed container 1l of food stuff or beverage which it is desired to keep cooll and fresh by cold storage, and has .a lower chamber for holding a dry, evaporating refrigerant material 12. The fixed partition 13 keeps the container and all elements contiguous therewith from contiguity with the refrigerant 12, but the cold storage region is open to access of gases from the latter through suitable perforations or other openings, and gases may escape through a vent in the top cover closure 14.

In the preferred form of the invention, illustrated in Figure l, the receptacle 10 may be an open ended tube of paper board stock similar to what is used in the manufacture of the cylindrical type of paper container 0l' Cim, Th? Papel may be of two or more plies, of helical or convolute winding into tubular form, and the top cover closure 14 may be of a usual type of anged cap fitting nicely and removably over the tube end. A similar iianged cover cap 16 ilts removably over the lower end of the tube 10, and this, when removed, constitutes a shallow cup or tray on which a desired quantity of the refrigerant 12 may be adjusted for placement in the tube, by which placement the tray becomes the bottom of the lower compartment. Two compartments are provided interiorly of the tube, in this form of the invention, a perforate paper board transverse partition 13 being fixed in position so as both to divide said interior, and to constitute a support for holding a container or other object set in the upper, or cold storage compartment.

Obviously thereceptacle thus made might be inverted, and would then work in about the same way but the refrigerant material would be in the upper chamber and the material kept cold in the lower. For the sake of clarity of language it is convenient to assume one position or the other, and the question therefore proceeds upon the assumption that the refrigerant is below, as illustrated; but it is desired that it'beunderstood that the reverse position is considered as an equivalent, and that those passages inthe claims which refer to top and bottom, or upper and lower, cover equally the reverse arrangement where that would be substantially equivalent. The free space next to be described, between refrigerant and container would then, for example in the case of Figure 1, inverted, be on the other side of the partitionl, with the refrigerant instead of the container resting on that partition; and with the container instead of the refrigerant resting on the end which would then be the lower end of the receptacle as a whole; and suitable minor changes of design could be made if it were desired to make this the regular way for holding and manipulating the apparatus.

The refrigerant material 12 rests on the removable tray or bottom cap 16, and preferably is made in a cake of such size that when the cap is in place the cage does not touch the partition 13. Thus a free space 18 of substantial extent intervenes between the refrigerant 12 and the partition 13 for circulation of gases emanating from the refrigerant; and these gases may also pass upward through the perforations in the partition into the cold storage compartment, and may ultimately escape through the port 15 in the top cover 14.

En Figure 2 is another embodiment. In this any ordinary cylindrical paper can may constitute the tubular receptacle 10', and its permanent bottom closure 20 serves as the support for the refrigerant 12. The'partition 22, in this case,. on which the container 11 rests, is an inverted shallow paper cup resting loosely on the can bottom 20, with the refrigerant 12 resting on the can bottom 20 under the cup. The side walls of the cup maintain its bottom 24, which may be perforated as at 25, well above the refrigerant, as in the preferred form, and the circulation effect is as heretofore described.

The embodiment of Figure 3 has an annular supporting ledge 26 for the inner container 11. While this might be employed in a tube 10 with removable cap bottom as in Figure 1, it is in fact illustrated in a receptacle 10' which may be of any ordinary type with permanentbottom the same as that seen in Figure 2. The annular support 26 may be formed either by cutting out the central portion of a flanged or cupped disk like partition 13 of Figure 1, or by bending inward radially a portion of the cylindrical wall of a paper tube,'to the same effect. This annular support is glued in the bottom end of the tube 10 and preferably has its inwardly projecting annulus corrugated as at 28 to provide air pockets or passages. As in the other described forms, the support 26 will stand well up from the can bottom in position to hold the inner container 11 spaced above the refrigerant 12 which, here represented as being in powdered form, may be dropped through the middle hole in annular support 26.

If desired means may be provided for the automatic centering of the inner container 11 on its support, to keep it away from that contact with the wall of tube 10 Which it is otherwise likely to have on some side or other, if it be loose and free to tumble about, and to assure a suflicient circulation space on all sides. In Figure 4 a construction like that of Figure 1 has tab-abutments 30 pressed out of the partition 32 to project obliquely outward into the cold' storage compartment. If a suitable number of these abutments or tabs are spaced around the periphery of the partition, gravity will center the inner container 1l in their midst, and the openings thus made in the partition can serve as the perforations for passage upward of the refrigerating gases.

The specific embodiments illustrated in Figures 2 and 3 would not work in the same,way if inverted, obviously, because the advantageous space-between the refrigerant and the container would be closed by gravity, although the other advantages would remain; and the centering of the container 11 of Figure 4 by the tabs 30 would cease unless the'container were long enough to reach to the very end of the compartment in which it is, in which case the space between it and the refrigerant would be diminished. But it is to be observed that by the use of a container of the type ilustrated, having its end wall inward froml the actual end of the container made by the crimping, a space is formed, as clearly seen just above the partition 13 in Figure 1; and this would be true in every form illustrated except that of Figure 3, when inverted.

The refrigerant package may be made in form adapted to hold varying quantities of refrig- V erant at choice, i. e. an extra large cake for in* stances where the ice cream or the like is to be kept ,an unusually long time, and smaller cakes for ordinary usage. This may be provided for in a device like that of Figure 5, where a bottom cover 34 which may be a regulation can, is made extra deep, and has a tight frictional telescoping engagement over the closed bottom end of a can 36 perforated as at 38, which constitutes the housing for a container 11 of ice cream or the like, to be preserved in the package. The refrigerant l2 rests on the bottom of the outer can 34; and said bottom may be set at a selective distance from the perforated bottom of the inner can, thereby to provide a large or' small ice compartment according to the size of the ice cake. A space always`shou1d be left between the refrigerant cake and the perforate bottom of the inner can. Friction between the telescoping walls can effectively hold the cans in selected relative positions. The continuance of this space may be safeguarded by introducing a ring of cardboard as an annular strut 35. In the absence of suchVv an interior strut, and for a guide in the selective setting of the bottom cover, to make a desired space, suitable ink marks 40 may be printed on the exterior surface of the inner can, with notation that they mark the positions of the outer can for particular thicknesses of refrigerant cake.

In case it is desired to provide insulation beyond what is inherent in the paper stock above described for example, two-ply spiral tubing, such insulation may be built into the walls of the receptacle between the two plies, or the interior surface of the tube 10 may be coated with insulation. In Figure 4 a layer of insulating material as asphalt is represented at 42, intervening between the two plies, which as a fixed structural element is shielded and protected on all sidesby the paper` stock. Ordinary cylindrical paper cans, or parts thereof, are adapted to serve economically in my improved refrigerant package, and whatever variations in size may be advisable from present practices in the paper can industry may be accomplished simply and inexpensively.

All of the disclosed forms of the invention are simple in construction and are fool proof in operation. For example, for the preferred form of Figure 1, a person has only to (l) put on the bottom cover to hold the ice cake; and (2) the top cover to hold the container; and the refrigerant package is then complete and safe.

I claim as my invention:

l. A refrigerant package comprising, a tubular body with end closures; a perforate wall dividing the interior of the tube into an upper compartment for cold-storage and a lower compartment Within which refrigerant material may be placed, and from which cold gases can rise to said cold-storage compartment; and means fast on said Wall and protruding thence for engaging and for centering on the axis a container which may be set in said cold storage compartment. 2. A refrigerant receptacle comprising a tubular body made of paper; a cover removably fitting the top end of the tube; a closure for the bottom end, for holding refrigerant material; a partition made of paper within the tube at a predetermined distance from the bottom closure, for supporting an article in spaced relation to saidrefrigerant material; and tabs cut and bent from said partition at its peripheral portion for centering said article on the axis of the receptacle; the openings through the partition at said tabs constituting circulation passages for gases emanating from said refrigerant material.

3. A refrigerating receptacle comprising a cylindrical tube; a cross partition fixed in the midst of the axial extent of the tube, dividing the tube interior into two chambers, one for cold storage and the other for evaporative refrigerant; a cup for the refrigerant constituting a tray on which the refrigerant may be carried to and be placed within its chamber, and fitting as a flanged closure for this chamber when applied thereto; and a cover for the cold storage chamber, at the opposite end of the tube; there being openings passing said partition for circulation of evaporated refrigerant into the cold storage chamber, and a vent through the wall of the cold storage chamber to atmosphere.

l RAYMOND A. BENNETT. 

